Patents

A system includes a signal monitor to monitor a time rate of change of a revolutions per minute (RPM) trim signal that is received from an RPM command path to control a velocity of a helicopter rotor. An icing detector detects for the presence of ice accumulation on the helicopter rotor by comparing the time rate of change of… Read more »

A beam for a rotorcraft rotor and particularly to a helicopter rotor. Said beam comprises a hub connection portion, a blade connection portion, a first flexure portion located between the hub connection portion and the blade connection portion and having a bending stiffness about a first axis which is orthogonal to the longitudinal axis of the blade,… Read more »

The disclosure relates to a lighting apparatus of a helicopter deck, which is meant especially while being installed in connection with an identification marking, such as an H, triangle, cross figure or the like, and/or a touchdown and positioning mark ring on a landing and takeoff area of the helicopter deck for illuminating the safety marking/markings in question in… Read more »

Piloted or autonomous rotorcraft includes a rotor safety system. The rotor safety system comprises a lidar scanner toward a rotor of the rotorcraft, e.g., the tail rotor, that scans the 3D space in the vicinity of the rotor. Objects in the vicinity of the rotor are detected from the lidar point data. In a piloted… Read more »

A system includes a first mast torque transfer system, a second mast torque transfer system coupled to the first mast torque transfer system, and a torque limiting system. The torque limiting system includes a first sensor configured to determine a torque of the first mast torque transfer system, a second sensor configured to determine a… Read more »

A helicopter search light comprises: a lighting arrangement, having at least one light source, the lighting arrangement having an adjustable light output; a light detector, which is configured for detecting light emitted by the at least one light source and reflected by the ground and/or at least one item on the ground and for providing a detection… Read more »

Latitude Technologies, the premier global supplier of flight data monitoring, flight following, and satcom solutions has received United States Patent No. 10075228, “Aircraft Flight Data Monitoring and Reporting System and Use Thereof”. First filed in 2013, the newly issued Patent recognizes the unique system and advanced methods invented by Latitude’s engineers and programmers used for… Read more »

Multiple redundant harmonic drive motors on a rotor head actuate the angle of attack of rotor blades at the rotor blade roots, providing collective control that, in combination with a system for providing cyclic control on the rotor blades, eliminates the need for a swashplate, thereby advantageously reducing the weight and maintenance cost of a helicopter, increasing… Read more »

Embodiments refer generally to systems and methods for providing autorotative enhancement for helicopters using an autorotative assist unit coupled to the transmission of the helicopter. Methods of utilizing an autorotative assist unit as well as retrofitting an autorotative assist unit to an existing helicopter are also disclosed. By employing an autorotative assist unit, improved autorotation can be achieved… Read more »

A helicopter search light comprises a lighting arrangement comprising at least one light source and having an adjustable light output; a light detector, which is configured for detecting light reflected by the ground and/or at least one item on the ground and for providing a detection signal which is correlated to an amount of light detected; and… Read more »

A pedestal assembly receives a pylon assembly of a tiltrotor aircraft having an airframe including a fuselage and a wing. The pedestal assembly includes inboard and outboard tip ribs that extend above the wing and respectively define inboard and outboard slots. The pedestal assembly also includes inboard and outboard bearing cartridges. The inboard bearing cartridge… Read more »

An automated kiosk and related apparatus provide check-in and boarding services to energy sector passengers, such as helicopter passengers. Preferably, the kiosk and related apparatus can take and store a picture of the passenger, calculate and/or measure the weight of the passenger and the passenger’s luggage, print luggage tags and boarding printouts, check third parties’ databases (such… Read more »

A mobile helicopter landing pad comprises a platform with one or more elongate, concave guiding channels for aligning a helicopter on the landing pad by forcing the helicopter’s skates into a specific alignment upon landing. The guiding channels may have laterally disposed rollers or else be made of slick material to allow the helicopter to slide towards the base of the guiding channel… Read more »

A helicopter-hoist system is described. The system may include: hoist equipment, illumination systems, range-measuring equipment, camera(s), communication systems, display devices, processing/control systems including image-processing systems, and power-management systems. The system may also include a smart-hook for measuring a load on the hook. Based on the measured load on the cable, the lighting may be illuminated in… Read more »

Elastomeric bearings exhibit a reactive positive spring effect, i.e., they produce an opposing torque or force when angular displacement or translation is applied upon them, due to shear stress developed within their elastomer parts. The present invention incorporates a device that exhibits an increasingly strong torque or force in the same direction as the displacement,… Read more »

A test rig of the closed loop type for testing power transmission units of any geometry, in particular helicopter transmissions, comprising drives with friction belts, flat belts in particular. The belt drives have pulleys with diameters that compensate for the creep in the belts. In some embodiments, the test rig comprises `slave` transmissions. In some embodiments the… Read more »

An emergency collective actuator includes an actuator motor to produce an actuation force and an actuator linkage that directly engages a friction control lever that is pivotally supported on the collective stick of a helicopter to apply the actuation force directly to the friction control lever such that the actuation force initially disengages the friction control and… Read more »

The invention relates to a device for controlling an auxiliary engine (8) comprising a gas generator and a free turbine suitable for being able to be connected mechanically to the rotor (12) of a helicopter in order to supply it with thrust power, characterised in that said control device comprises a proportional-integral controller (30) having a proportional… Read more »

A system for monitoring movements of rotor blades attached by flapping hinges to a central head or hub of a helicopter. At least one sensor is arranged to continuously measure vertical angular movement of a rotor blade and/or the flapping hinge. Also a method for monitoring movements of rotor blades attached by flapping hinges to a… Read more »

A convertiplane has the ability to take off like a helicopter and then fly horizontally like a conventional aircraft. The aircraft includes a variable incidence front wing of variable span located below the fuselage and mounted on a structure in the form of a venturi tube, a rear wing having two propellers for controlling the stability of… Read more »

A helicopter tail rotor gearbox including a housing, an output shaft for connection to a tail rotor rotatably supported in the housing and having an open end therein, an input member rotatably supported in the housing, gearing providing a power transmitting connection between the input member and output shaft, a pitch control shaft for effecting a change… Read more »

A drip pan apparatus for use in a helicopter includes a drip pan and a frame having a plurality of frame sides and a plurality of frame corners that define an inwardly-facing peripheral surface. A first frame angle is formed between a first inwardly-facing surface and a second inwardly-facing surface. The first frame angle is an acute… Read more »

A helicopter search light includes at least one first light source, with the at least one first light source in operation providing a spot light functionality of the helicopter search light, at least one second light source, with the at least one second light source in operation providing a flood light functionality of the helicopter search light, and a switching circuit… Read more »

An actuating device to displace a part of an empennage of a helicopter, including a first part including a first casing fixed to a frame of the helicopter, a first element mounted in rotation with respect to the first casing and a first motor the first element. A second part includes a second casing connected to the part of… Read more »

A propulsion system for a tiltrotor aircraft includes an engine supported by the airframe and a fixed gearbox operably coupled to the engine. Inboard and outboard pedestals are supported by the airframe and positioned above the wing. A pylon assembly is rotatably coupled between the inboard and outboard pedestals. The pylon assembly includes a spindle… Read more »

A tracking wedge, a rotor and a method for modifying a movement of air over a tracking wedge. According to aspects of the disclosure, a tracking wedge used to correct the tracking of a helicopter rotor blade may include one or more acoustic management mechanisms. The acoustic management mechanisms may change the manner in which air moves… Read more »

A rotor hub for a reaction drive type helicopter includes a cylindrical sidewall having a top and an open bottom which defines an interior volume. A top plate closes the top of the cylindrical sidewall, and at least two pipe sections extend outwardly from the cylindrical sidewall. Each pipe section extends through the sidewall in communication with… Read more »

The present invention relates to an automatic system suitable for reducing the speed of rotation of one or more suspended loads, preferably where said rotation is originated by the flow tube located downstream preferably of the blades of the helicopter whereto said loads are attached, or by any other cause, and whose mechanical operation is based on the… Read more »

A method of determining the longitudinal air speed V.sub.airX and the longitudinal ground speed V.sub.solX of a rotary wing aircraft depending on the exposure of the aircraft to the wind, the aircraft flying at a speed of advance Va. The method making it possible to determine characteristic speed curves for the aircraft depending on the… Read more »

The present invention relates to an automatic system suitable for reducing the speed of rotation of one or more suspended loads, preferably where said rotation is originated by the flow tube located downstream preferably of the blades of the helicopter whereto said loads are attached, or by any other cause, and whose mechanical operation is based on the… Read more »

A propulsion system for a tiltrotor aircraft includes an engine supported by the airframe and a fixed gearbox operably coupled to the engine. Inboard and outboard pedestals are supported by the airframe and positioned above the wing. A pylon assembly is rotatably coupled between the inboard and outboard pedestals. The pylon assembly includes a spindle… Read more »

A system is provided that includes a security system that protects a secured geographic area including at least a building, a wireless helicopter drone, a camera carried by the drone and a processor of the security system that controls a geographic location of the drone based upon threats detected within the secured area and that records video… Read more »

A helicopter includes a rotor system having a rotor with an adjustable pitch that is controlled at least in part by a pilot using a collective control and which helicopter generates a Low RPM signal that is indicative of a threshold low rotational speed of the rotor. An actuator arrangement can move the collective control by exerting a force… Read more »

An electrothermal heater mat for anti-icing or de-icing of a helicopter rotor blade or other aerodynamic surface comprises a substrate, such as a flexible polyimide sheet, bearing tracks of a material of selected electrical resistivity, these tracks being formed by printing onto the substrate with a thermosetting ink loaded with electrically conductive (e.g. carbon) particles. Electrical bus… Read more »

SKYTRAC has received a Canadian patent with US patent pending for a bill-by-the-mile flight tracking solution that allows air ambulance operators to improve the accuracy of reporting on billable distances. “To minimize their satellite communications costs, most operators opt to receive GPS position reports only every one or two minutes. The assumption is that an… Read more »

A helicopter autopilot system includes an inner loop for attitude hold for the flight of the helicopter including a given level of redundancy applied to the inner loop. An outer loop is configured for providing a navigation function with respect to the flight of the helicopter including a different level of redundancy than the inner loop. An actuator provides a braking… Read more »

A rotor drive for a tail rotor of a helicopter is provided. The system includes a stator and a rotor mounted to the stator with a rotatable central carrier. Rotor blades are radially attached to the rotatable central carrier and each of the rotor blades is pivotable about their respective radial central axis for variation of blade… Read more »

An electrical control and power supply system for at least one helicopter motor/generator, the system including a first DC/AC converter selectively delivering AC electrical power to the at least one motor/generator, depending on respective positions of contactors of a connection matrix actuated from an electronic control circuit, the first DC/AC converter powered with DC by a DC… Read more »

A drive system for a helicopter includes a main drive for driving a rotor the helicopter, a flywheel mass battery including at least one flywheel, a first transmission coupling the flywheel mass battery with the main drive such that, during operation of the main drive, output can be transferred from the main drive to the flywheel mass battery, and… Read more »

n airfoil blade (2) of a bearingless rotor of a helicopter. Said airfoil blade (2) has a pitch axis from a tip end to a root end and said root end is provided with junction means for a separable junction arrangement of said airfoil blade (2) with a flexbeam head (13), and a control cuff (4,… Read more »

An unmanned helicopter includes a drive source, a tail rotor, a shaft unit that transmits a drive force from the drive source to the tail rotor, and an elastic member. The shaft unit includes a drive shaft, a transmission which transmits a drive force from the drive source to the drive shaft, and a transmittal portion that… Read more »

Systems and methods of warning a pilot of a helicopter about a servo transparency condition include devices and steps for retrieving, from a design performance database, a plurality of design performance parameters of the helicopter, and receiving avionics data from an avionics data source, the avionics data representative of a plurality of actual performance parameters of the helicopter. The design… Read more »

An airfoil blade (2) of a bearingless rotor of a helicopter. Said airfoil blade (2) has a pitch axis from a tip end to a root end and said root end is provided with junction means for a separable junction arrangement of said airfoil blade (2) with a flexbeam head (13), and a control cuff (4,… Read more »

A wind power installation includes a helicopter hoisting platform configured to be arranged on top of a nacelle of a wind driven power plant. The nacelle and the helicopter platform are configured such that a bottom surface of the helicopter hoisting platform is below a top surface of the nacelle. See full details

The present invention provides a multi-stage tilting and multi-rotor flying car including: a main frame externally shaped like a rectangle and internally partitioned to have a grid structure; a body mounted at a center of the main frame in consideration of balance; a plurality of rotors mounted to the main frame to face upward; a… Read more »

An aircraft for use in fixed wing flight mode and rotor flight mode is provided. The aircraft can include a fuselage, wings, and a plurality of engines. The fuselage can comprise a wing attachment region further comprising a rotating support. A rotating section can comprise a rotating support and the wings, with a plurality of… Read more »

XTI Aircraft Company (XTI) announced today that it received a written Notice of Allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, stating that the USPTO will issue a utility patent for the TriFan 600 vertical takeoff airplane. “This is another important milestone for the company,” said Robert LaBelle, XTI’s Chief Executive Officer. “Issuance of this… Read more »

Orbital ATK (NYSE: OA), a global leader in aerospace and defense technologies, announced it was granted a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the Helicopter Active Protection System (HAPS), a system to protect helicopters against airborne threats. This represents the first patent awarded to Orbital ATK for its development of methods… Read more »

From the full official documentation of US Patent 8944764 The invention claimed is:1. A main rotor arrangement for an UAV-helicopter, the main rotor arrangement comprising: a rotor mast defining a vertical axis of rotation, a hub for attachment of rotor blades, wherein the hub is mounted to the rotor mast in a tiltable way so… Read more »

Sikorsky have been granted patent number 8,548,648 for “Fly-by-wire flight control system with electronic lead/lag damper algorithm”. Two particular sections of interest from the official US Patent & Trademark Office website posting are listed below Background of the Invention The present invention relates to a fly-by-wire flight control system, and more particularly to an electronic lag damper algorithm implemented… Read more »

The following text is the preamble to Patent 8,372,498 granted on 12th February, which can be viewed in more detail on the US Patent and Trademark Office website here. The present invention relates to composite articles, and more particularly to core densification. Some composite articles incorporate a core such as honeycomb (HC) or foam for… Read more »

Sikorsky have been granted patent number 8,353,673 for “A main rotor blade assembly includes a main spar with an integral cuff. The main spar is directly to a rotor hub assembly through the integral cuff”. Two particular sections of interest from the official US Patent & Trademark Office website posting are listed below Background of… Read more »

Bell Helicopter Textron, Fort Worth, Texas, has been assigned a patent (8,336,815) developed by Richard Rauber, Arlington, Texas, Frank B. Stamps, Colleyville, Texas, and James Lee Braswell Jr., Colleyville, Texas, for a “constant-velocity drive system for gimbaled rotor hubs.” The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A constant-velocity… Read more »

AVX Aircraft Company today announced that it has been granted its primary utility patent by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office.Â The Companyâ€™s utility patent covers all aspects of its unique technical functions and configuration, consisting of coaxial rotors and dual ducted fans, the relationship between the rotors and fans, which provide propulsion and directional… Read more »

Synodon Inc.,(“Synodon”) [TSXV-SYD], announces that the United States Patent Office has awarded it a Patent for its data analysis method that uses surface reflectivity profiles to improve the accuracy of Gas Filter Correlation Radiometer (GFCR) measurements. By using this method in its current realSensTM GFCR implementation, Synodon estimates that it can improve the gas detection… Read more »

An innovative new patented product designed to protect airplanes and helicopters from a potentially catastrophic situation, the Engine Safety Shield, has been developed by John Zunik of Brooklyn, New York. The invention’s unique design enables it to serve as a highly effective safety barrier for airplane and helicopter engines against birds and other airborne objects… Read more »

Bell Helicopter Textron, Fort Worth, Texas, has been assigned a patent (8,078,395) developed by Kenneth E. Builta, Euless, Texas, James E. Harris, Dalworthington Gardens, Texas, and Billy K. Gore, Euless, Texas, for a “control system for automatic circle flight.” The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A flight… Read more »

The present invention relates to a method and to an apparatus for controlling and regulating a rotorcraft turbine engine. The apparatus is provided with an electronic control and regulation computer that receives signals relating to monitored parameters of the turbine engine. The apparatus is remarkable in that it is provided with an alarm controlled by… Read more »

Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) announced today that it has been awarded United States Patent No. 7,950,113 for the “Device for Retaining Splitting Forces of a Cable Stop.” This device, also referred to as a “cable ferrule,” is currently in use on the Navy’s MH-60S mine hunting helicopter. The device provides an improved structural interface between… Read more »

United States Patent no. 7,983,809, issued on July 19, was assigned to Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. (Stratford, Conn.). “Aircraft Integrated Support System (Iss)” was invented by Edward T. Kell (Wallingford, Conn.), Anthony J. Lowe (Stratford, Conn.) and Sebastian H. Colbert (Hartford, Conn.). According to the abstract released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: “An aircraft… Read more »

Sikorsky have been assigned patent #7,984,146 – developed by James N. Rozak, Cheshire,CT and James P. Cycon, Media,PA.Â The topic is listed as “aircraft health and usage monitoring system with comparative fleet statistics.” The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS) utilizes… Read more »

United States Patent no. 7,931,238, issued on April 26, was assigned to Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. (Fort Worth, Texas). “Automatic Velocity Control System for Aircraft” was invented by Kenneth E. Builta (Euless, Texas) and Kynn J. Schulte (Arlington, Texas). According to the abstract released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: “A flight control system… Read more »

Sikorsky Aircraft, Stratford, Conn., has been assigned a patent (7,931,428) developed by Brandon L. Stille, Cheshire, Conn., for an “aircraft payload retention system for interior loads.” The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “An aircraft payload retention system includes a cable, a brake assembly, a hollow crushable member… Read more »